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Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence,and do not take your holy spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation,and sustain in me a willing spirit. (Psalm 51:7, 10-12 NRSV)
Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean, scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life.God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life. Don't throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me. Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails! (Same, The Message)
Happy Friday dear Friend! I pray this be a day of wondrous blessings for you and from you. Whatever your plans include for this weekend, please factor in time with the Lord in His house. I ask prayers for me as I will be preaching at First UMC of Shiner, Texas, at 11 a.m. I will also be in worship at FUMC-Gonzales at 8:30 am. Pray for one another; pray for yourselves.
Sin leaves a lasting spot on our souls; what is worse, it is the beginning of a spot that will grow and slowly destroy all the clean, healthy areas around it. The only remedy is God's forgiveness. Forgiveness lifts the weight caused by sin that our hearts cannot normally support on our own. The blood shed by Jesus serves to remove that guilt and shame and to lift us up. Remember the lines that formed when John the Baptist started his powerful ministry with a simple sermon: "Repent for the Kingdom of God is at hand." Boom! That hit people right where they needed to be hit. Sin had not been preached nor had forgiveness. Sin was something people carried around and sadly, some died with it; the religious people of his day were not addressing it. John says, "Come get washed clean in the Jordan!" and the crowds came. They knew what they needed, and God offered it through John. Then Jesus comes, uses the same sermon at first and then lives a life that showed that wholeness and healing were indeed possible to those who would humble themselves before God; then He died for those sins, bearing the weight of them on the cross.
I never tire of sharing John Wesley's response to the weight being lifted from his heart, and this after a lifelong ministry of preaching and serving; "I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation; and an assurance was given me that He had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death." Even mine. It hit home, thank God, and brought to him a new perspective towards God and God's love and his ministry changed.
Dear one, read again the prayer from David. He sees in his spirit, God using a tool of the day for washing; the modern version has him soaking in the laundry; but both say the same thing: I will be clean. Clean from sin in a brilliant way! AND, hear this, God can create clean hearts in us, along with a NEW and RIGHT spirit within us. The first steps of restoration; steps that lead to salvation and joy, and the willing spirit to continue onward and upward in our spiritual lives. With that taken care of inside of us, our outside will reflect that as well. People will know, and people will ask what has come over us. And we can tell them!
PRAYER: Loving God, I pray the words of the Psalmist for my life and heart: I want to be washed and brilliantly clean! I want a new heart created in me, one filled with love and awe for all Your creation. I want a new and right and wonderful spirit within me that will show on the outside! And all this to continue serving You with a willing spirit. In Christ Jesus' strong name I pray, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord! May your actions taken now reflect on your smile later today. Bring light into the darkness of those who need it!
Eradio Valverde
